Fresh from jail, Publix shopper accused of driving off in store's electric cart

Thursday

Jan 17, 2013 at 12:27 PM

Ocala Police Department officials say a woman drove away with her groceries from the Publix at Churchill Square in one of the store's electric shopping carts.

By Austin L. MillerStaff writer

About 10 hours after Michelle R. Nichols completed her 60-day sentence for retail theft she was arrested again.This time, Ocala Police Department officials say, Nichols, 23, drove away with her groceries from the Publix at Churchill Square in one of the store's electric shopping carts. She told police she took the cart because she was tired, according to OPD.She was charged with retail grand theft.On Wednesday evening, Officer Robert Cashner went to the Publix at 303 SE 17th St., where he met with a manager. The official told him a woman wearing a white shirt and jeans had been using the scooter while shopping, paid for her groceries and rode it out of the store.Cashner searched for the scooter and found the Nichols on the cart about a mile away at Southwest 11th Street and South Pine Avenue.She told him her feet were hurting and that she took the cart "so she did not have to walk," according to an OPD report.Nichols had been released from the Marion County Jail at 10:17 a.m. Wednesday morning. She was arrested again at 8:27 p.m. and was booked into the jail again shortly before 1 a.m. Thursday.At the time of her previous arrest, Nichols had her 7-month-old child with her. The Department of Children and Families was notified and took custody of the child.Wednesday's alleged theft wasn't the first time someone drove away with one of Publix's electric shopping carts.Last January, Todd Edward Shields, 53, took a cart from the Publix at the Forty East shopping center. When arrested, he told a police officer he was feeling tired and had pain in his back and knees. At the time, Shields was attempting to go to the Silver River Inn at 5565 E. Silver Springs Blvd., more than a dozen blocks away.He pleaded guilty to grand theft in that case, but the judge withheld adjudication of guilt, according to online court records.Contact Austin L. Miller at 867-4118 or austin.miller@starbanner.com.